There is no known build record for the Old Town canoe with serial number 1247 but there may be one or more hidden digits in your serial number. The records in the 1247x range and 11247 do not show a canoe with sponsons. The information at
http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.php?791 may help you find these hidden numbers. Please attach some pictures of the numbers from both stems, the entire bow deck area, and some overall pictures to help us identify your canoe.
The Old Town canoe with serial number 74771 is a 17 foot long, CS (common sense or middle) grade, HW (heavy water) model with red western cedar planking, open spruce gunwales, birch decks, birch thwarts, birch seats, a keel, a floor rack, and a painter ring. It was built between December, 1922 and February, 1923. The original exterior paint color was bright red. It was shipped on March 27th, 1923 to New York City. The square back was probably a modification after it left the factory.
The Old Town canoe with serial number 10435 is a 16 foot long, CS (common sense or middle) grade, HW (heavy water) model with red western cedar planking, closed spruce gunwales, spruce decks, spruce thwarts, spruce seats, and a keel. It was built between December, 1908 and May, 1909. The original exterior paint color was dark green. It was shipped on May 12th, 1909 to Seattle, Washington. It seems unlikely that this canoe would show up in New York so you should check the numbers in this one again and post some pictures.
Scans of these build records can be found by following the links at the attached thumbnail images below. These scans and several hundred thousand others were created with substantial grants from the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association (WCHA) and others as you probably know well. A description of the project to preserve these records is available at
http://www.wcha.org/ot_records/ if you want more details. I hope that you will join or renew your membership to the WCHA so that services like this can continue. See
http://www.wcha.org/about-the-wcha/ to learn more about the WCHA and
http://store.wcha.org/WCHA-New-Membership.html to join.
It is also possible that you could have other numbers or manufacturers if these descriptions don't match your canoes. The cedar strip project that you purchased probably doesn't have a serial number. Do you have a question about it? Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions.
Benson
